Even with the economy's high prices among us, Union Baptist Church members
are sacrificially donating their dollars to see the construction of a new
sanctuary. Over $21,000 was raised in a single service on Sunday, April 20.

And in the past week, figures in the thousands have continued to pour in.

The church is still shy of their $650,000 price tag while sitting at
$175,000, but by the first week of June their new church is expected to be
under roof.

Men from Montgomery, Alabama's Eastmont Baptist Church, called Carpenters
for Christ, will be calling Hawesville home from May 28th through June 6th.

They are volunteering their time to take Union Baptist's new building from
an idea to a physical structure.

The group has been performing such mission trips since its inception in
1987. Since then it has built over 20 churches.

When Union Baptist looked into financing with the Kentucky Baptist
Convention (KBC), they were later contacted by Carpenters for Christ to do
the labor free of charge.

The men will be housed at both Hawesville Methodist and Hawesville Baptist
churches' fellowship halls.

"We couldn't do it without them [the churches], we just couldn't pay for
lodging for all of them," said Bro. Jim McDaniel, pastor of Union Baptist.

"They are graciously opening up to do that for us."

Union Baptist will be supplying all the materials for the construction, and
several meals to the men on the job.

"When they leave the church we will be 'in the dry'," said Bro. Jim. "The
walls will be up, hopefully the doors and windows will be in, and the felt
will be on the roof."

The carpenters will also be performing all the electrical work.

And as if that wasn't a blessing of its own, Campers on Mission, another
Baptist organization, will be arriving in July to hang all the drywall.

"It's exciting times," said Bro. Jim.

Bro. Jim joined Union Baptist in March 2001. After hearing discussion from
his congregation about a new sanctuary, he helped in creating a building
committee. That same committee has continued to work diligently over the
last seven years, and are about to see their hard work pay off.

Initially the committee looked into possibly constructing an addition to the
existing church, located at 5831 State Route 1389 in Hawesville. An adjacent
lot was going to be used to build a basement and then extend the sanctuary
out on the main floor.

But after further studying, the committee realized adding onto a building
well over 100 years old was not an ideal project. That is when the church
approached Franklin Hayden, a land owner across the highway.

"They [the Haydens] prayed about it and we [the church] prayed about it,"
said Bro. Jim. " And then they said 'yeah we'll do it'."

The church purchased three acres from the Haydens at $3,000 apiece. They
will also be taking an acre or two from the cemetery to locate the new
building on.

"It will be behind what we call the new cemetery," said Bro. Jim.
The property was purchased in fall of 2006, and ground was broken on Easter
Sunday, April 7, 2007.

But the old building is not the only reason why Union Baptist chose to
rebuild.

"We're out of sanctuary space, we're out of Sunday school room, we don't
have a big enough fellowship hall and we're out of parking," said Bro. Jim.

Complaints many churches would say are nothing but positive.

Union Baptist's membership is upwards of 200 people. The new building will
seat approximately 240.

"But we are building it so it can be easily expanded to accommodate 300,"
said Bro. Jim.

The new building will also feature an angled sanctuary, a 2,200 square foot
foyer, a fellowship hall and education rooms, as well as plenty of parking
and the Preschool facility. All in all it will scale about 11,000 square
feet. Local businessman Denny Wroe will serve as the project's foreman and
Todd Hayden is the church's building committee chairman.

All of this had been made available thanks to the church members, said Bro.
Jim.

"We've done some fundraisers, but a lot of it has just been church members
donating," he said.

Children have also taken an active part in raising money for the building
fund. Each one was given a "church bank" to fill. They turned them in last
Sunday, and one young man turned in over $200 alone, said Bro. Jim.

"They [the banks] were bulging, some of them were taped together," he said.
The amount has not been tallied yet. The youth also handed over $1,000 last
Sunday as proceeds from their fundraisers.
A one year pledge was implemented when the church broke ground last year.

This month the church is beginning another pledge, for a duration of three
years.

It is unknown when Union Baptist's congregation will actually get to move
into their new building, but Bro. Jim says his wish is just to continue to
build right through.

On May 31st the men from Carpenters for Christ will be hosting a Wall
Raising Ceremony at 9 a.m. Church families and the community is invited to
attend. Children of the church will have participation in signing the walls
and writing scriptures upon them, as well as erecting them.

The church is excited to be having their first service in the new church
upon the completion of the work done by Carpenters for Christ. It is to be
held on Wednesday night, June 4, and Firm Foundation is expected to be in
concert.

The church is also unsure of what they are doing with the old building as of
yet. The topic has not been discussed, said Bro. Jim.